750 words - should there be another way?

[Texture]

I just got something rejected because it was well under 750 words, about 150.

Alright, I didn't read the guidlines properly and I'm bitter!

I'd just like to see if anyone else thinks there should be another way.

Some ideas can be perfectly expressed by a short, descriptive bit of prose or something that leaves things to the imagination.

It seems a bit limiting to just go on a word count.

 

[HawaiiBill]

I don't think so

Seven hundred and fifty words isn't much. The proprietors of this web site set that with good reason, in my view, and you will notice the huge number of stories, poems, etc., now online. It beggars the imagination to consider adding short dollops as you suggest.

Without a doubt, there are places that want short stuff.

And, also without a doubt, there are many areas in the Literotica forums where that would be welcome.

You have only been registered a few weeks. Suggest you look around a bit more at the quality available before cranking out criticism.

 

[KillerMuffin]

The reason for the minimum is the astonishing number of stories that read like so:

I met this great girl at the mall the other day. She had a fantastic body with great tits. I introduced myself and we talked for a while, until the mall closed. She was really digging me and I liked her. Since we didn't want to go home, I took her to the park in my '87 Camaro with the T-top down. Her long, blonde hair blew in the wind and she flashed a trucker. We laughed like crazy. When we got to the park, she gave me the hottest blow job I've ever had. I'm met her the next day for hot sex, but that's another story.

To be continued.




The site has nothing against flash fiction, it's just that an underwhelming minority can pull it off. Trust me, there's nothing whinier than a rejected writer who notices that someone else gets to post something s/he was rejected for.

By the by, Literotica measures 750 via Word's word count function, not the traditional publishing method.

 

[Weird Harold]

The reason for the minimum is the astonishing number of stories that read like so:

An additional reason for a minimum word limit is that 750 words is roughly the point where the story matches the overhead in bandwidth. With the images in the advertisements, 750 words is only about 10% of the bytes you have to download to read the story.

It's a question of "value for the money" or at least the value of the download time.

 

[Texture]

I see your points.

If there are hundreds of submissions, the word count gives an easy criteria for rejection. On the other hand tho, something that short takes much less time to read.

I can't really say how many people would be bothered about the bandwidth.

I don't think my post was out of line..it's neither 'cranking out criticism' nor saying anything about the quality here.

 

[Weird Harold]

I can't really say how many people would be bothered about the bandwidth.

I don't think my post was out of line..it's neither 'cranking out criticism' nor saying anything about the quality here.

Almost anyone with a dial-up connection is liable to be less than happy with a story that takes longer to download than it does to read, but it's Literotica that is more concerned with the bandwidth issue -- is it really worth the server time to build a story page that is more advertisement than story?

I don't think your post is out of line, but ther are a lot of people who think Literotica should ignore or even change their standards just for them because they don't agree with them.

Literotica has some logical reasons for the few limits they place on authors and there are dozens of other places that will galdly post Literotica's rejects.

 

[yaspis]

My opinion is this: 750 words is nothing in erotica. Flash fiction is nice indeed, but when a person starts to read these pieces they either wish to get excited or have a good nudge towards the edge. There are people around who are happy with short, minimalistic "and then we had amazing sex three times in a row and once in the morning" style, but I believe their numbers are few. Just as with painting, little lines will certainly tell some people what the picture represents, but most people need more lines, colour and paint to really "get" it. When writing erotica the author should try to conjure up vivid images in the mind of the reader, and this is not likely to happen with Spartan writing.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

There's now a thread in the Author's Hangout for flash fiction shorter than 750 words. Here's a link:

https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=227997

---dr.M.

 

[yaspis]

I went over this few times in my mind, and I have to admit that flash fiction should deserve it's own category on the main story index. It would be nice if someone would write a piece of flash fiction and illustrate it.

Aside from that, it would be nice to have a list of people who would volunteer to donate their time to illustrating stories...

 

[Guest]

Before my first story I thought that 750 words an interesting number. So I wrote a story that was only 750 words and submitted it. It was very very short. It was like a walk to my mail box and back again. I realized that I wanted something that was more like a walk around a few blocks.

So no, I think that 750 words is actually short.

puts her $.02 down on the counter